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Published: November 1st 2007
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After spending more than three months in India, it was quite sad to be leaving....although further along the trail one must go.
More aeroplanes here we come......we flew from Delhi to Singapore to Beijing - 3 countries in less than 24 hours.....and we were knackered!
I think I was still in India mode and when we arrived in Beijing it was quite a shock to the system. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it was much more modern, developed and clean than I was imagining - it was a real city with skyscrapers and massive highways!!
Beijing was pretty nice - the weather was good (we happened to be there on one of the 11 days of 'blue sky' per month - part of Beijing's new air pollution control plan). We walked around town getting lost and trying our best to speak chinese (the use of actions and pictures was invaluable!). Surprisingly we managed to find 'San Litunyashow Market' which had been recommended to us by a lovely Chinese man on the plane to Beijing. Way too many good things in there!
To Tiananmen square we went....checking out the 38-metre high Monument to the
Before the huge Wall Climb
...notice the distinct lack of sweat! People's Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Amongst the hundreds of tourists, there were soldiers/security guys dotted around everywhere in the square.....if anything was to 'cause a scene', they would be straight on it in a second. We followed our nose and headed towards the big portrait of the late Chairman Mao (and the main entrance to the Forbidden City).
The Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, is the largest palace in the world. It was built in the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1406-1420) as the home to the Chinese Emperors. The reason it's called the Forbidden City is that for five hundred years, only the Emperors' servants and Chinese Royalty were allowed in - ordinary people couldn't enter it. Should anyone else have entered, the penalty was death! I think if I'd have been around back then, I'd prefer to admire it from afar!
The Forbidden City was pretty cool, although Nahdi and I both preferred the 'Lama Temple' (Palace of Peace and Harmony) in Beijing. Built in 1694, the Lama Temple is now a typical Tibetan Monastery. Having been closed for many years during the Cultural Revolution it was refurbished and reopened
The Great Wall of China
The camera just doesn't do it justice! in 1980. It was lovely and peaceful inside and we thoroughly enjoyed meandering through the large beautifully decorative halls and courtyards filled with Buddhist art, including sculptured images of gods, demons and Buddhas, as well as Tibetan-style murals.
One of the best things about the Lama Temple is that there is a fantastic vegetarian restaurant just by it that we managed to stumble upon. 'Xu Xuang Zhai' was delicious and we both (over)-indulged in the best buffet we've ever had (and we've both had many a buffet in our time!!!). I would thoroughly recommend it if you visit the Lama Temple - it's lovely inside, great service, so much variety, so fresh and just scrupmtious!!
Of course a visit to Beijing would not be complete without climbing The Great Wall......
Not feeling too fit that day, we decided not to walk all 6,700 km of it, but rather the 10 km stretch from Jinshanling to Simitai. Well....after the 3 hour drive from Beijing, we reached Jinshanling......and I can't think of enough superlatives to describe what lay ahead of us. I'd seen photos of the Great Wall in magazines and on TV, but seeing if with ones own eyes
is something else! It just seemed to go on forever.....as far as the eye could see.
The surrounding mountain ranges really take your breath away (and take your mind off the steep inclines that are also taking your breath away!!). It was really quiet and peaceful there and we basically had the Wall all to ourselves. It was quite a challenging walk with its steep ascent, crumbling parts and obstacle walls, but after about 3 hours, we came to Simitai and felt very rewarded indeed!
From Beijing we experienced our first overnight train in China ..... and 10 hours later woke up in Luoyang. Here we visited the Longmen Grottoes (constructed from 493 and hosts 2,300 holes and niches, 1,300 caves and 100,000 statues), and the White Horse Temple - the first Buddhist Temple built in China.
'On the road again'.....well, actually on the railway again, our next destination was Xi'an....and the Terracotta Warriors. Xi'an itself is a lovely place with everything going on, however it's more famous now really for the Terracotta Army that lies about an hour away.
It's quite an amazing story how this 'Army' was discovered. About 2,200 years ago, the Emperor
Forbidden City
'Nine Dragon Screen' inside the Imperial Palace of China in the Qin Dynasty (who was only 13 years old at the time!) ordered the construction of all these warriors for the protection of his tomb when he died, in order to protect his tomb and take this protection into the afterlife. It's said that it took 37 years and 700,000 prisoners, workers and craftsmen to complete this Army. Quite a feat - especially considering each Warrior is life-like and life-sized with not one having identital features to another (ie: each Warrior is individual).
So about 2,200 years passed and then a group of farmers accidentally discovered them whilst digging a well in March 1974. To think if they'd dug for the well a few metres either side, the Army may never have been discovered. It's all pretty crazy, and quite amazing to be there and see them in the flesh (ah I mean in the ceramic!).
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